Chapter 9—The Pearl
This chapter is based on
Matthew 13:45, 46
.
The blessings of redeeming love our Saviour compared to a pre-
cious pearl. He illustrated His lesson by the parable of the merchant-
man seeking goodly pearls “who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Christ Himself is
the pearl of great price. In Him is gathered all the glory of the Father,
the fullness of the Godhead. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory
and the express image of His person. The glory of the attributes of
God is expressed in His character. Every page of the Holy Scriptures
shines with His light. The righteousness of Christ, as a pure, white
pearl, has no defect, no stain. No work of man can improve the great
and precious gift of God. It is without a flaw. In Christ are “hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:3
. He is “made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp-
tion.”
1 Corinthians 1:30
. All that can satisfy the needs and longings
of the human soul, for this world and for the world to come, is found
in Christ. Our Redeemer is the pearl so precious that in comparison
all things else may be accounted loss.
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Christ “came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”
John
1:11
. The light of God shone into the darkness of the world, and
“the darkness comprehended it not.”
John 1:5
. But not all were found
indifferent to the gift of heaven. The merchantman in the parable rep-
resents a class who were sincerely desiring truth. In different nations
there were earnest and thoughtful men who had sought in literature
and science and the religions of the heathen world for that which they
could receive as the soul’s treasure. Among the Jews there were those
who were seeking for that which they had not. Dissatisfied with a
formal religion, they longed for that which was spiritual and uplifting.
Christ’s chosen disciples belonged to the latter class, Cornelius and the
Ethiopian eunuch to the former. They had been longing and praying
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